EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 349 



teen bushels of No. 2 corn is a very liberal provision, and that it is the 

 patriotic duty of every farmer and hog raiser to feed the hogs he now 

 has on hand to a good finish and make them fat and heavy, as it is 

 lard and fats that our allies need, and we must supply them. In addi- 

 tion, we should plan to increase the 1918 pig crop as much as we can 

 with the corn in sight, by breeding more sows and taking good care of 

 the pigs after they are farrowed. I believe that we are confronted by 

 a very serious crisis on account of the pronounced hog shortage, so it 

 behooves each one of us, as loyal American citizens, to bend every effort 

 to assist our government to overcome this situation. 



In regard to the fixing of prices on fat cattle, up to the present the 

 government has done nothing along this line except to license the pack- 

 ers and define their profits, and issue a statement thru the Food Ad- 

 ministration to the effect that it would do all in its power to maintain 

 prices at a level that will be remunerative to the feeders. Just to what 

 extent the cattle feeder is going to be benefited by this plan is hard for 

 us to say. The fact is that everything now indicates that the cattle 

 feeder is scheduled to take a loss. An unfortunate combination of cir- 

 cumstances has overtaken him. High-priced feeders, soft corn, high- 

 priced protein feeds, and meatless days inaugurated by the Food De- 

 partment, all tend toward lessening the feeder's profits. In my judg- 

 ment, the inauguration of two meatless days per week by our Food 

 Administration was the hardest blow that the cattle feeders have re- 

 ceived for some time. This has no doubt prevented the consumption 

 of millions of pounds of beef and mutton, and allowed the supply to far 

 exceed the demand. I believe that these meatless days should be con- 

 fined to pork only, and that a strong appeal should be sent from this 

 organization to the Food Administrator to release beef and mutton for 

 every-day consumption, and that meatless days apply to pork only. 



Reviewing the field work of your association in securing member- 

 ships during the past year, I will say that it has been one of unusual 

 prosperity. Your president has worked overtime ever since the roads 

 were hard enough to run an auto in the spring, and I am certainly grat- 

 ified to be able to report that mi)re old members have renewed their 

 five-year pledges, and more new names have been added to the list, by 

 far, than in any year since we adopted the five-year pledge system. 

 In all my experience in this work, it never was as easy to secure mem- 

 bers as during the past year. Everywhere we worked, the membership 

 was materially increased, and in many counties and localities it was 

 doubled. Hundreds more could have been secured had there been time 

 and opportunity to get to them. But there is always a limit tp human 

 accomplishments, and we could only do so much. 



The one thing that impressed me most and was so gratifying in 

 my field work was the very large percentage of splendid young farm- 

 ers, from twenty-five to thirty-five years of age, wh^o joined the as- 

 sociation. This is certainly a good omen, and bids fair for the future, 

 as it is the young men of the state who must soon take over this or- 

 ganization and direct it, if it is to be maintained in the years to come. 

 There are thousands of young men scattered over the state who could 

 be gotten into this organization if only they could be reached. 



